It is common knowledge in the field of rolling bearing technology that the flanges on the bearing rings of cylindrical or needle roller bearings serve, as a rule, as an axial guidance for the rolling elements that roll on the shell surfaces of the bearing rings. Normally, these flanges are configured in one piece with the bearing rings and are made by a machining of the bearing ring. In addition, it is also well-known for a long time that flanges can be made as separate components and then fixed on the bearing ring by welding, soldering or even by adhesive bonding.
A generic rolling bearing race ring with adhesively bonded guide flanges is known for example from the document DE 41 33 442 A1. In this rolling bearing race ring, the guide flanges configured with flat lateral surfaces are supported directly on the rolling bearing race ring through a collar adjoining the rolling elements, and a circular gap for receiving the adhesive adjoins the periphery of the collar turned away from the rolling elements.
In a further rolling bearing ring known from the document DE 102 00 811 A1, the ring body of the bearing ring is adhesively bonded either in the region of its axial front end surfaces or in the region of its running surfaces with the respective opposing contact surfaces of two guide flanges. The front end surface or the running surface of the ring body comprises a plurality of local depressions made by displacement of material, as well as elevations surrounding these depressions, and the contact surfaces of the guide flanges bear against said elevations, so that a continuous gap for receiving an adhesive is formed between the ring body and the guide flanges.
Moreover, the document DE 76 03 570 U discloses a rolling bearing race ring comprising guide flanges adhesively bonded thereon, which are fixed with the help of an intermediate adhesive foil out of dispersion hardening, cross-linking resins such as phenolic resin or melamine resin on which the ring body comprising the raceway is fixed.
The main drawback of all the aforesaid known adhesively bonded joints between the guide flanges and the bearing rings is, however, that neither the bearing rings nor the guide flanges comprise any means whatever for a defined positioning of the two parts relative to each other, so that, to avoid a slipping of the guide flanges out of their exact position till the adhesive has hardened out, the guide flanges have to be fixed in position on the bearing ring by separate auxiliary devices. In addition, in the case of the first two aforesaid embodiments of adhesively bonded joints, there exists the danger of superfluous adhesive being displaced onto the raceway of the rolling elements and, in its hardened state, this adhesive obstructs a flawless functioning of the rolling bearing.